A great discovery
by T3am.Nic0
Summary: Nothing mattered any more, not Alyssa running towards her, not Bast left alone to defend the house, not even Percy holding her hand and telling her everything would be okay.
1. Chapter 1

Annabeth's dream took her to a place she had never been before with two people she had never seen before. A blonde girl with a british accent and an african american boy were sat reading an ancient looking book in a language she didn't recognise, but was probably older than Ancient Greek. The odd duo seemed to be in a hurry, and Annabeth could see why, for looming over them was a giant ... snake?

"Sadie hurry, finnish the spell" the boy was saying. The girl, probably Sadie, raised an ornate stick into the air and said a few words in the language Annabeth hadn't been able to understand. Her words had an immediate effect on the snake and it vanished into the darkness, similarly to the way Nico did when he used his shadow travel ability, but Annabeth doubted that the giant snake would end up in China.

Annabeth woke up in the Athena cabin to the normality of Camp life. Her Daedalus labtop sat on her desk along with her designs for Olympus. Her cabin mates were still sleeping but she could hear the Apollo kids playing basketball outside. Despite how quiet things were, she couldn't quite shake the feeling that something to do with her odd dream was going to ruin the tranquillity of her home.

She decided that the best course of action was to tell Chiron about her dream. The strange people. The giant snake. And the unrecognizable language.

Once she had finnished, Chiron explained to her that the people she saw were most likely members of an organization called the house of life, which was a society of magicians who believe in and banished the Egyptian gods. The snake was probably their primordial chaos god, Apophis. And the language was ancient Egyptian.

Annabeth could barely cotain her excitement. A whole new pantheon to learn about. She ran straight to her cabin and researched 'House of Life' on jer Daedalus laptop which turned up a big fat nothing. Okay, she thought after she got over her disapointment, try talking ro Rachael, she might know something about this House of Life organization.

 _You shall go west to the 21st nome._

 _You shall learn what you need._

 _and return home alone._

Okay, that part didn't sound too bad, Annabeth thought.

 _You shall suffer the greed_

 _Of chaos or war_

 _but when a loved one is lost, the west is no more._

Annabeth wasn't sure about any of that, suffering the greed of chaos or war didn't sound great, but she couldn't stand the thought of a lost loved one, she had already lost luke.

And suddenly, she didn't want to learn more about this new pantheon. What if that loved one was Percy. Stop it, she scolded herself, lost doesn't mean dead. And over thinking prophecies never gets anyone anywhere. Lets just start from the beginning and go west to the 21st nome.

Problem no.1: She had no idea where the 21st nome was. Problem no.2: She had no way of getting there. And problem no.3: She didn't want to go alone.

The last one was easily solved - call on Percy. She found him in the poseidon cabin drooling in his sleep. Annabeth would never admit it, but she found it cute when he did that and almost didn't wake him. But she changed her mind quickly, she needed him with her and didn't want him to be the loved one she lost.

She lightly shook him awake and his sea green eyes blinked open.

"Good morning seaweed brain."

"Good morning to you too wise girl."

"Hey, listen, I was wondering if you would be okay to come on a quest with me to the 21st nome."

"Sure, where is the 21st gnome?"

"Not gnome as in the garden decoration, nome, N-O-M-E as in district or region"

"Okay, but my question still stands. Where is the 21st nome?"

"I don't know " Annabeth admitted, and she really hated not knowing.

"Why not take that damned chariot thing. Won't the grey sisters know where it is?" The chariot of damnation, why hadn't Annabeth thought of that. As much as he may pretend otherwise, by using words like 'gnome' and 'damned chariot thing', Percy was actually kind of smart.

"Knew I'd need you along," Annabeth said.

"You did?"

"Come on seaweed brain," she told him as she dodged that last comment. She was not going to tell him twice in the same morning that she, a daughter of the wisdom goddess, needed him.


	2. Chapter 2

Annabeth and Percy reached the outskirts of camp after packing everything they were going to need; gold drachma, nectar, ambrosia and lethal weapons. She gave her best impression of a taxi whistle and soon the grey sisters were taking them to the 21st nome.

The ride was bumpy, as was to be expected with the grey sisters. Although there were three of them, they only had one eye in total, and usually the driver wasn't the one with the eye. The ride was shorter than Annabeth expected, and after a few minutes of holding Percy's hand and preying to every god she could think of that she survived this trip, the car (if you could call the chariot of damnation a car) lurched to a stop outside an old, abandoned warehouse. After paying the drivers, she and Percy stood outside thinking this cannot be the right place.

"So, what now?" Percy asked

"We ring the doorbell."

Ding dong.

The two notes echoed around an empty space that was much larger than what she and Percy saw from the outside. It reminded her of a TV series she had watched with her father, Dr. Who, where everything was bigger on the inside. She thought about the saturday winter nights when her stepmother and half-siblings were out and she and her dad would curl up on their tattered sofa with a bag of popcorn and watch back-to-back episodes. Stop it, you cannot afford to get nostalgic now, you're about to find out about a new pantheon, exciting.

Not long after she rang the doorbell, the door swung open to reveal a ... baboon?

"Khufu, who is it?" A male voice, definately american. "Is Sadie back"

"Arg"

"No, you are not getting any more Doritos, Cheerios or Oreos until Sadie gets back." He sounded exasperated, as if the baboon asked for Doritos, Cheerios and Oreos on a regular basis. "Hi, can I help you?" the boy asked, addressing Percy and Annabeth, and now that she could see his face, she recognised him, the african american boy from her dream.

"Yes, gods yes," she answered.

"Gods?" the boy questioned.

"Long story, but we both know about the existence of ancient gods, such as the greeks and Egyptian."

"Your monkey eats Doritos, Cheerios and Oreos," Percy chimed in, determined to be a part of the conversation.

"And any other foods ending with the letter 'O'. You mentioned the greek gods?" The boy phreased his words as a question to Annabeth, letting his curiosity come through.

"Yes," Annabeth answered, pleased to have a chance to show off her knowledge of the greeks. "We're demigods," she gestured to herself and Percy, "Half mortal children of the ancient greek gods, Percy is a son of Poseidon and I am a daughter of Athena. We came here to learn about the Egyptian gods because it might be the only way to stop an apocalypse, in both our worlds. We are facing the rise of our earth goddess, Gaia, and I know that your pantheon is facing the rise of your Chaos god, Apo-"

"Don't say that word," The boy said cut her off. "But yes, you are right, how did you know that by the way?"

Annabeth answered with "A dream" as if that would be sufficient, but when Percy saw the confused look on the boys face he stepped in. "Demigod dreams usually show us visions of the past, present of future that relate to the path we are on.. Last night Annabeth saw you and a blonde british girl fighting a giant snake and knew she had a role to play in this."

"And what about you?" The boy asked Percy

"She's my girlfriend, I can't have her fighting giant chaos snakes without me."

"Why don't you both come in and we'll wait until my sister gets back before we discuss this further."

The boy opened the door further for them but the two demigods found their way in blocked by an invisible boarder, the harder they pushed against it, the harder it pushed against them.

The boy soon realized the problem and said some kind of entrance permission; "I Carter Kane, Egyption magician invite you into the 21st nome." This time, when Percy and Annabeth tried to go through, their way wasn't blocked by an invisible barrier.


	3. Chapter 3

Annabeth marvelled at the piece of architecture she found herself in. It was obviously Egyptian, the pyramid and obalisk shapes all around her meant it couldn't be anything else.

"It's beautiful" she told Carter.

"Hmm" he answered, clearly distracted by something. He apperared to be deep in thought as he took Percy and Annabeth on a tour of the building and, although she could tell Percy wasn't interested, she loved everything the Carter had to say. She was particularly fascinated by the library.

"We don't need books," Carter explained when he saw the look of confusion on their faces. "Anything we want to read is collected from museums and other places by the shabati."

Annabeth found that incredible but Percy's eyes had glazed over the same way they did when she talked about architecture to him, and she could tell he wasn't listening.

By the time they made it to the dining room where they were going to wait for Carters sister, Sadie, to arrive, Annabeth and the magician had already struck a close friendship. The two of them compared notes on Egypt and Greece while Percy sat in silence between them holding her hand.

"So, Carter, what do you know about this giant snake thing that Annabeth mentioned earlier?" Percy asked, just to get involved in the conversation.

"He is Isfit in a physical manifestation. Sadie and I have been searching for allies, people with the blood of the pharoes to help us fight him, but the rest of the house of life hates us at the moment and we're struggling."

"Well, consider us your allies." Annabeth told him.

"Thanks, after everything you've told me that would be super helpful."

"WHAT!" Percy exclaimed, "Annabeth how much have you told him about us?"

"Just that you can control the ocean and pretty much any other body of water, that you single handedly defeated both Ares and Kronos, that you have the curse of Achilles which makes you pretty much invulnerable and that you are the best swordsman we have."

"Just that" he said with his trademark smirk that Annabeth couldn't help but love. Then he added "nothing about how you are the smartest person in the Athena cabin. Or how you were asked to redesign Olympus. Or how you saved my life by throwing yourself in front of a poison blade. Or how you carried the weight of the sky for at least a week. Hmm?"

"No, nothing about that," Annabeth answered with a flush, she couldn't stop feeling prideful at Percy's words. She had done all that after all.

"So," Carter interupted them. "While complementing each other like this is all very sweet, we still have an apocalypse to deal with."

"I thought you said we couldn't talk about that until Sadie gets back," Percy answered him.

As if on cue, the doorbell rang for a second time that day and the three of them heared a british girl talking to the baboon.

"Arg."

"Oh, Carter said that did he."

"Arg."

"Being the older sibling does not make him in charge."

"Arg"

"Khufu, you had some this morning."

"Arg"

"Yes, I know its the afternoon now."

"Arg"

"It doesn't matter how you describe the word 'please', I'm not giving you any." At that, they heard the sound of Khufu's baboon...feet?...storming into the dining room with an enraged sounding "Arg."

"Sadie's right Khufu, have some tonight." Carter told the baboon. And, having been rejected by both Sadie and Carter, Khufu babooned out of the room to play basketball with Julian.

"CARTER" Sadie yelled from the doorway.

"In here" He replied, with a roll of his eyes.

"Where is here?"

"Honestly, if that girl wasn't British, she could be the blind with 20-20 vision for America."

"What about the blind girl with 20-20 vision for Britain?" Percy asked.

"Nah, we can't have that, then britain would beat us."

"CARTER?" Sadies voice came from the same place as the last time, Annabeth noticed.

"The dining room."


	4. Chapter 4

Sadie stormed in with the attitude only the British have when it comes to small matters like giving baboons Cheerios. "Carter, why would you say that we would feed khufu when I got back when you know we are under strict instructions from Amos only to feed him twice a day? And how have you been sitting here all day doing nothing while I have been all over the country looking for people with the blood of the pharoes? And who in Isis's name is this?" She somehow managed to say all of that without pausing for breath.

"I only said that to Khufu to stop him from pestering me whilst I was teaching Julian, Walt, Alyssa and Felix. I have been teaching and searching for allies too. And this is Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson, greek demigods who have volunteered to help us." Carter answered all three of his sister's questions in one go.

"Well, that clears that up then."

"And," Carter continued as if Sadie hadn't said anything, "Judging by the lack of new recruits you brought back, I'd say that I've been more successful than you."

Sadie sat down at the table next to Annabeth, as far from her brother as possible. "So, greek demigods you say?" She asked, just to move the conversation away from how her brother had been more successful than her.

"Yes," Annabeth answered. "Percy and I are both half-mortal children of the ancient Greek gods. My mom is Athena and Percy's dad is Poseidon. Being the children of these gods has some added bonuses like Percy's ability to control water, But it comes with a price like having to save the world from an apocalypse within our pantheon just a few months ago, then we have another one which could happen any time between tomorow and hundreds of years from now. And we heard about your situation and came to help knowing that in some way it relates to us."

Sadie was already regretting sitting next to Annabeth, in just a few sentences the girl had managed to mention three separate apocalypses, she was seriously depressing. "So, in conclusion, your here to help us fight Ap-"

"Don't say that name," Carter interceded.

"Carter has some ridiculous theiry that the name..."

"Don't even think about it"

"...Yeah that, is jinxed" Sadie explained for Percy and Annabeth's benefit.

"Ah, so thats why he went crazy when Percy tried to say the name Apo-"

"For the last time, that word is jinxed."

"Let's just call him 'he-who-must-not-be-named' like they do in Harry Potter" Percy suggested to save him and Annabeth from what could have been a long siblings debate about whether to us the name Apophis. Besides, he had always wanted to call someone 'he-who-must-not-be-named.'

"Okay" Carter agreed.

"Sure" Annabeth replied.

"But then Carter wins" Sadie complained.

And they were going to have the long siblings debate anyway, percy thought to himself.

"Carter wins what?" Asked a female cat-like voice from the doorway.

All heads turned to find a young woman in her thirties wearing a leopard-print leotard and puss-in-boots boots.

"Bast" Sadie exclaimed as she embraced the newcomer.

"hello muffin."

"Hey, thats my nickname for you, noth the other war around."

"Sorry kitten, just wondered what it was like to call someone muffin."

"And?"

"I'll stick with kitten." Then Bast seemed to notice Percy and Annabeth for the first time. "Who's this?"

"oh, Bast, this is Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, greek demigods who have volunteered to help us." Bast hissed the moment Carter said the word 'demigods.'

"There's a reason I tell you two to stay out of Manhattan, that reason is because it is their territory." Bast said 'their' as if Percy and Annabeth were the enemies and Annabeth found that insulting.

"I'm sorry, did you miss the part where Carter said we were here to help you with your fight against he-who-must-not-be-named?" she asked, adopting Percy's nickname for Apophis, they really needed to come up with a new one because he-who-must-not-be-named was far too long.

"No, I didn't, but we don't need your help," Bast retorted. Annabeth was really beginning to hate the Kanes' pet cat.


	5. Chapter 5

Bast litterally dragged Percy and Annabeth out of the building by their ears and Percy was beginning to wonder what they had been doing in the 21st nome in the first place. "Look Annabeth," he said "I know you were excited about learning about a whole new pantheon and I know you believe you have a role to play in this, but this isn't our world, our world is fighting Kronos and Gaia and going to camp and training with weapons. Not Egyptian gods and magic and he-who-must-not-be-named. Come on, lets get a coffee and head back to camp, yeah?"

"Okay," she answered and smiled at him, but it was not a happy smile.

The two of them headed into the nearest coffee shop and ordered their drinks.

...

"What in Osiris' name was that Bast!" Carter yelled when the cat goddess returned from throwing out their two new allies. "Aren't you always saying we need to find more Allies. That we can't defeat he-who-must-not-be-named alone. Percy Jackson can control the ocean and pretty much any other body of water, that he single handedly defeated both Ares and Kronos, he has the curse of Achilles which makes him pretty much invulnerable and he is the best swordsman they have, and last time I researched it, greeks are damn good swordsmen. And Annabeth Chase is the smartest person in the Athena cabin. And was asked to redesign Olympus. And carried the weight of the sky for at least a week. Bast, we need them."

Bast stared at Carter as if she couldn't imagine how he had learnt so much about the two greeks in such a short space of time, then she remembered who she was staring at.

"Carter's right Bast" Sadie said, for the first and last time ever. "We need them."

"I don't like it, but your right. Do a tracking spell on them and we'll see where they are."

Sadie volunteered to do the spell and she hurried off to her room. When she was gone Carter and Bast sat down to discuss what they would do once they got the greeks back.

"We need to tell them everything" Carter was saying, "they'll be more helpful that way."

"No," Bast countered "we need to limit their knowledge so that if they turn out to be spys for Apo-"

"For Horus's sake Bast how many times do I have to tell you not to say that name."

"Carter, its not jinxed."

"Haven't you seen Harry Potter, Voldemort jinxes his own name so that he knows where the people who are serious about fighting him are so that he can kill them."

"But no one in our world is afraid of the name Ap-"

"FOR THE LAST TIME - DON'T SAY IT!"

"Urg fine. He-who-must-not-be-named, then you and Sadie will have the upper hand in a fight."

"Did you miss the part where I said Percy is a probably better at controlling water than Kwai, or that he's the best swordsman the greeks have? We'll never have the upper hand in a fight against them. So we might as well decide to trust them completely and tell them everything."

"If we do that, and they turn out to be spies then we're doomed."

"Bast we're pretty much doomed anyway."

"Aren't we always pretty much doomed," Sadie said as she re-entered the room.

"Where are they?" Carter and Bast asked in synchronization.

"Wow, you two are eager."

"Sadie, where are they?"

"Coffee shop down the road."

"I'll go," Carter volunteered and he ran down the road to get back their two (possibly) most powerful allies.

...

Percy an Annabeth had just paid the bill and were about to head back to camp halfblood when they say a familiar African-American boy running into the shop.

"Carter, what are you doing here?" Annabeth asked, sectetly pleased that he came after them, the Egyptians did need them after all.

"I'm sorry for the way Bast treated you, but being an Egyptian goddess, she probably hates the greeks. Anyway, she has agreed that we do need your help and I came here to ask you to come back."

"And she won't drag us out by our ears again?" Percy asked just to be clear about it.

"She's not happy about working with you but Sadie and I have made it clear that she can't do that."


	6. Chapter 6

Once they were over the formalities of the invisible barrier and the five of them - six if you counted Khufu the baboon - were sat around the dining table, they started discussing how they would defeat he-who-must-not-be-named.

Sadie: "Me and Carter will..."

Bast: "Carter and I."

Sadie: "Be going out at dusk with Bes to search for the third part of the book of Ra in the Duat which should be the key to defeating he-who-must-not-be-named."

Annabeth: "We really need to change that name."

Sadie: "Okay, how about Apo-"

Carter: "FOR THE LOVE OF ISIS - DON'T SAY THAT"

Sadie: "So not Ap-"

Carter: "SADIE."

Percy: "How about the-evil-villain-that-we're-trying-to-defeat?"

Annabeth: "Thats even longer than he-who-must-not-be-named."

Bast: "How about Isfit."

Carter: "I like it, easy to remember, not too long."

Khufu: "Arg."

Carter and Sadie: "No."

Percy: "I will never be able to pronounce that."

Sadie: "Yeah, we need something the greeks can understand."

Carter: "Chaos?"

Sadie: "Unoriginal much?"

Carter: "Oh, so we have to be original now"

Sadie: "Well yeah, we're coming up with a name for an evil villain. We can't use something like the evil step-mother, thats way too cliché."

Percy: "So, the ugly step-sister then?"

Carter, Sadie, Annabeth and Bast: "NO"

Khufu: "Arg"

Sadie: "Khufu, what are you talking about?"

Carter: "You can't possibly like that idea."

Percy: "Ha, the baboon likes it."

Annabeth: "Yeah, the baboon might, but no one else does."

Percy: "So?"

Annabeth: "So, we're not using it. I agree with Carter, lets keep it simple and go with Chaos."

Percy: "Well I think he-who-must-not-be-named is much more catchy."

Bast: "Okay, lets vote on it, all those in favour of Chaos say aye."

Bast, Carter and Annabeth: "Aye."

Bast: "All those in favour of he-who-must-not-be-named say aye."

Percy and Sadie: "Aye"

Khufu: "Arg"

Bast: "It seems we are at an impass, but, a goddesses vote counts as two, so we win."

Percy: "Hold on a minute."

Sadie: "A baboons vote has to count as at least three."

Bast: "Damn it"

Percy: "So we went through all that just to end on the name we started with."


	7. Chapter 7

It took a while but after he-who-must-not-be-named's name had been figured out, Carter, Sadie and Bast could explain to Percy and Annabeth where the Kanes were going to be tonight and the attack they were expecting. Percy and Annabeth agreed to stay the night and help Bast defend the house with Amos and a few other trainees and the Kanes left for their death-quest.

Annabeth headed straight for the library, still fascinated by the idea of the shabati, leaving Percy alone with his favourite cat.

"So, you're a goddess..." Percy said just to get a conversation going.

"Yes."

"Of cats..."

"Yes."

And that was it, the extent of their talk, the two of them sat in silence waiting for somethin to happen - nothing did.

...

Annabeth still couldn't get her head around the idea of a library without books. She reached out to stroke one of the shabati, hoping to learn how it worked but a female voice from behind made her hand jerk reflexively and the shabati fell to the floor and smashed into millions of tiny pieces.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked again.

Annabeth turned to find a girl, maybe a few years younger than her, sitting behind a desk. Surprisingly, the girl didn't look mad that Annabeth had broken the shabati. She just pionted a staffbatbthe pieces and said something in the language Annabeth still couldn't understand. As she watched, the Shabati put itself back together and returned to its place on the shelf.

"Woah" Annabeth breathed, she knew the egyptians could perform magic, Hades, she'd seen Sadie and Carter doing it in a dream. But seeing it in person, that was different.

"Hi," she said.

"Hello," the girl replied.

"what's your name?" she asked.

"Alyssa."

"So, Alyssa," Annabeth was debating with herself about whether to tell Alyssa who she was or not. On the one hand she wanted to let the egyptians know that they could trust her, on the other she didn't want them knowing too much. She decided to take the risk, after all, risk taking is what she and Percy were all about. "I'm not actually Egyptian."

"Not egyptian."

"No, I'm a greek demigod."

"Greek, demigod." the words sounded strange coming from Alyssa, like the shouldn't go together.

"yes, my mother is Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and battle strategy."

"Wisdom? So your following the path of Thoth then?"

"No, me and my friend are here to help you fight a war."

"But you don't have the blood of the Pharaohs."

"No, I have the blood of a goddess."

"So your a goddess."

"No, I'm half goddess and half mortal." Alyssa didn't say anything to that, she just looked confused.

"Have you seen the film Hercules?" Annabeth asked.

"No."

Annabeth sighed. Holy Hephaestus, it was hard teaching these egyptian people how being a demigod worked.


	8. Chapter 8

"Annabeth!" Percy yelled as he came in.

She instantly turned away from Alyssa towards her boyfriend, he only used that voice if something was wrong, or his mother was trying to adopt Nico and she doubted it was the latter, this time. "Zia, Amos and Walt are here. It's time."

She and Percy, along with Bast and Amos were waiting by the balcony, where the hammer stroke would fall the hardest. Zia and Walt were on the roof with Julian and Alyssa and everyone else was inside where they wouldn't see any real fighting.

Percy had riptide in his hand and a determined look on his face, Annabeth would never admit it but she had always thought he looked hot when he was preparing for a fight. She had drawn her dagger and Amos was drawing a protective circle around them. As for their favourite cat, Bast had drawn two wicked looking knives and was in an attack position. In other words, the four of them looked like a group she wouldnt want to mess with.

"Annabeth?" Percy asked.

"Yeah?"

"Will our weapons work on these people?"

She hadn't thought of that. Celestial bronze worked great against monsters and demigods but not so well against mortals, which group did the egyptian magicians fall into. "I don't know," she answered, and she really hated not knowing.

"I can test that theory for you," Amos told them and held his arm out to Annabeth. She lightly pressed the tip of her dagger into his fingertip. To everyones relief, Amos expressed pain, their weapons worked.

Not long after their little experiment, they heard the first signs of fighting upstairs. There were battle cries, screeches antd the distant roars of a fire

"That must be Zia " Amos was saying.

"Or Aziza." Bast pointed out.

Who's Aziza? Percy mouthed to her.

No idea, but I'm guessing she's a fire magician working against us, she mouthed back.

They didn't have time to talk/mouth any more because some idiot had decided it would be a good idea to challenge her boyfriend, in his own element.

The man was standing on a giant wave and introducing himself as "Kwai, bringer of -" She never learnt what Kwai was the bringer of because at that point, Percy had taken control of Kwai's originally impressive wave and turned it into a small droplet of water. Kwai, the bringer of not-being-able-to-talk-underwater tried to finnish his sentence but Percy put a stop to his efforts by twirling his index finger lazily the way he did when he was stirring his coffee. As she watched, a wirlpool began to form around Kwai, the bringer of being-stupid-enough-to-challenge-Percy-Jackson.

"Glad your on our side," Bast told Percy after Kwai had fallen from the balcony.

...

Kwai had just crawled out of the river when Aziza started her rant of the day. "KWAI" she yelled. "You were supposed to breach the balcony. He will be here any minute now. And if we havn't got rid of these annoying kids by then he's not going to be happy with us and we won't get our place in the new age."

"I didn't se you breaching the roof either," Kwai retorted.

"I ran into complications."

"Zia, I could beat that kid in my sleep."

"Then you take the roof this time."

"I will."

...

Aziza had been an easy defeat for Zia, they both worked with fire magic, but Zia's was much stronger. Aziza hadn't even come close to getting past her defences.

...

Percy waited, holding Annabeths hand, for the next attack. He knew that this one wouldn't be as easy as the last, they wouldn't be stupid enough to send Kwai up against him again.

He didn't have to wait long.

"Aziza," Amos breathed.

"Hello old friend," the woman, Aziza, replied.

Percy watched as Amos stepped forward to fight Aziza. The room heated up, in the litteral sence of the word, as the two fire magicians went head to head. Amos' flames surrounded Aziza, but whenever they got to close Aziza would take control away from Amos and use the fires agains him. For a second, Percy thought Amos would be able to defeat her on his own, but then that second ended. Amos, weakened by using too much magic, let his guard down, and Aziza took the opportunity to go on the offensive. Percy did the only thing he could think of - he used the plumbing to surround Amos in a protective bubble of water which put out Azizas fire and saved the older magician.

Percy, Annabeth and Bast took this as their cue to join the fight. Bast and Annabeth got in close with their weapons, weakening Aziza by injuring her, while Percy used the water which now surrounded them to put out Azizas fire before it could do any damage. Together, they pushed her back towards the balcony until Aziza had nowhere left to run. She jumped of the edge, landing in the river 5 stories below them and didn't come back up.

...

Kwai was a problem. His magic trumped Zias own and she wouldn't be able to defeat him without help. Fortunately, she had help, Walt, Julian and Alyssa stood beside her, wands and staffs drawn and ready to fight at her side. As it turned out, she didnt need the two boys. Kwai had been stupid enough to show off by turning his entire body into water, and one look between the two girls spelled out the plan Zia had formed. Alyssa started the fight by using her earth magic to mix Kwai's water body with dirt to make mud. After that, Zia had no problem using her fire powers to burn Kwai's face off.

...

After a while of waiting for the next attack, Amos began to relax. Killing Aziza weighed heavily on his conscience. The two of them used to be friends when they were training in the first nome together, both of them with an affinity for fire magic, and now, just like that, she was gone.

"Cookies?" Felix asked as he came into the room.

"Felix," Bast hissed, "you're not supposed to be in here."

"Sure." Percy said, clearly the son of Poseidon didn't judge a book by its cover because the cookies Felix were holding looked like Sadie's gran had made them.

"No thanks" Annabeth answered, clearly she was smarter than her boyfriend.

...

"What do we do now?"

"Stick to the plan, keep breaking through their defences?"

"But with Aziza and Kwai gone..."

"I know, but I still want my place in the new age?"

"But..."

"I KNOW"

...

Alyssa took it upon herself to tell everyone in Brooklyn house what had happened to Kwai and didn't find it surprising when her new friend, Annabeth, told her what had happened to Aziza.

"With them two gone, do you think they might stop attacking us?" she asked.

"No," Annabeth answered. "There'll be others out there breaking through the defences you and Julian put up earlier."

"Well, if thats true, it'll take them at least another hour, before they can get in. Julian and I were thorough."

"Good, I guess this means we have a break from the fighting, want a coffee?"


	9. Chapter 9

With the coffee break over, everyone waited by the east wall for the fighting to begin. Bast had her knives out and was as wired up for a fight as she had been the entire evening. The four magicians had their staffs and wands out. Percy and Annabeth had their weapons.

"What happens when they've gone through all the defensive spells?" Percy asked.

"The wall explodes." Julian replied.

"Oh, okay."

Annabeth looked over to her boyfriend and couldn't help smiling at the look on his face, his eyebrows were furrowed together, his mouth was slightly opened and his eyes were more deep-set than normal. She reached out to hold his hand, and they stood together like that until the wall exploded.

The battle began. The magicians stepped forward to trade off spells but tired quickly, leaving the rest of the fight to Percy, Annabeth and Bast. The three of them spun through the magicians, in a whirlwind of swords, daggers and knives. Annabeth made her first big mistake looking over to Percy who had formed a hurricane around himself and was definately the most impressive fighter on the battlefield.

"ANNABETH!" Alyssa yelled. "LOOK OUT!" Too late, Annabeths back exploded in sheer pain. She couldn't help it, she screamed. Percy ran to her side, leaving Bast to deal with the rest of the magicians. Nothing mattered any more, not Alyssa running towards her, not Bast left alone to defend the house, not even Percy holding her hand and telling her everything would be okay. Nothing but the knife that had penetrated her skin.

...

"GET IT OUT" Percy was yelling. Why hadn't anyone done anything? He was in a room full of magicians, surely one of them knew how to heal his girlfriend. He had already dealt with the idiot who hurt her, that moron had a far too quick death, and was now knealing over Annabeth who was growing paler by the second.

"Don't go, Annabeth," he told her. "Promise me you won't give in."

"I- I- pro-"

Her eyes closed, but she continued breathing,. Not dead, just unconscious, Percy reminded himself.

Julian was by his side without Percy even noticing. "Come with me," the magician was saying. "I'll take you to the infirmary." Percy scooped Annabeth up in his arms, carful not to touch her injury, and followed Julian down the hallway.

"Who's she?" Percy asked when they reached the infirmary, noticing the only other person there.

"That's Jaz," Julian answered. "She's our only healer and she's been comatose for a few months."

"YOU ONLY HEALER!" Percy was outraged, if their only healer had been comatose for months, then she wasn't going to be able to help Annabeth. His girlfriend might die.


	10. Chapter 10

Annabeth woke up to something she thought she'd never see again, sunlight. But there was something, well, someone she wanted to see more than that.

"Percy?" she was surprised by how strong her voice sounded, given that she'd just been stabbed.

"Hey," he answered. "Thank the gods your awake."

"How long?" she asked.

"Not long at all, a few hours maybe. How do you feel?"

"Fine," and it was true, she didn't feel any of the pain she had felt the precious night. She pulled back the covers just to check. No wound, not even a scar.

"How?" she whispered, she had meant it as a rhetorical question but a third voice which she didn't recognize answered her: "The blessing of Ra. Each morning, when Ra rides his sun chariot into the sky, he heals those who were hurt fighting in his name."

"Jaz?" Percy asked the voice.

"Do I know you?" She asked.

"No, Julian introduced me to you earlier, but you were still in a coma then."

"Julian?" she asked. "Is he okay?"

"Why not go see for yourself," Percy suggested. Jaz leaped out of the bed and ran straight down the hallway. Percy got up to close the doors behind her, giving them some privacy.

"You sure your okay, wise girl?" Percy asked when he came back to sit on the end of her bed.

"Never better, seaweed brain," she answered.

After a while, she moved to curl up against him, and he responded to the action by leaning down to kiss the top of her head.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too."

They sat like that for hours. Her curled up on his broad and extremely comfortable shoulder, him caressing her hair and occasionally whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

That was when Alyssa came in.

"Your beauti-" Percy was saying.

"Carter and Sadie are back," she announced.

"Took their time," Percy replied. Alyssa just shrugged and ran back outside.

"I guess thats our cue to get up," Percy said with a sigh and she and Percy reluctantly followed Alyssa out.

...

Given that they had just succeeded in getting Ra back, Sadie was looking disappointed, like she'd failed. Carter on the other hand was grinning like a mad man...at Annabeth, Percy would have words with him about that later, but now was not the time.

"So, what happened down there?" one of the magicians asked, their names were all starting to blur together as far as Percy was concerned, "We're all dying to know."

"Okay," Sadie started in her annoyingly posh London accent. This may have been a long night, but it was going to be an even longer day, Percy thought to himself.

Once Sadie had finally finnished her story, Percy took Carter out for a private word

"You were smiling at Annabeth," he accused, he knew he sounded rediculous, but he couldn't stand the thought of one of these magicians flirting with Annabeth.

"I was smiling at Zia." Carter answered. "I like Annabeth, but as a friend, and I've only known her for a day and I would never get in the way of someone's relationship, especially after both people in that relationship have risked their lives to help me and Sadie and I've liked Zia ever since I knew her. You have nothing to worry about."

"Sorry, I almost lost her last night, I guess I'm just paranoid that I might lose her in a different way today," Percy apologised.

"How did you almost loose her?" Carter asked.

"She got stabbed."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, its thanks to you and Sadie that she's okay now."

"How so?" Carter wasn't used to not knowing the answers, and definitely wasn't used to asking people like Percy Jackson, who reminded him of his sister, for them.

"Some Ra blessing thing, if you and Sadie hadn't brought back the sun god, she would be dead." Percy couldn't stop himself, he was crying, he couldn't bear the thought of losinglosing Annabeth the way he almost had last night.


	11. Chapter 11

Sadie sat in the dining room with Amos, Bast, Khufu and her brother.

"Why are the greeks still here? its been a few days since the fight to defend Brooklyn house and we haven't needed them since," Bast was saying.

"It's too dangerous to let them go. What if they're not on our side and they set their pantheon against us now that they know we are divided amongst ourselves." Amos argued.

"Whilst I don't agree with Amos's reasoning, I believe that we still need their help, this war isn't over yet," Carter replied.

"Arg."

"I'm with you Khufu, I like the greeks too, especially Percy when he made it rain in the hall and he and Zia were there like 'I set fire to the rain...'"

"Arg"

"Well I'm offended Khufu, my singings brilliant."

"Percy's okay-"

"-But you prefer Annabeth because she has more knowledge about the greeks." Sadie said, finnishing her brother's sentence for him.

"Exactly."

...

Percy and Annabeth sat outside the doorway listening in on the egyptians meeting.

"It's too dangerous to let them go." Amos was saying. Ouch. After everything he and Annabeth had done for them; fighting to defend their house, Annabeth almost dying, teaching their initiates to fight without magic, and not letting slip a word about magicians to any of their demigod friends, Amos still didn't trust them. Percy was about to barge in there but Annabeth shook her head, not yet.

They carried on listening, grateful to hear that Sadie, Carter and even Khufu were standing up for them. Percy even managed a smile when Sadie reminded him of the time he and Zia had provided the days entertainment with their take on Adele. He was tempted to go and find Zia, to tell her that someone enjoyed their show, despite the general consensus that neither of them could sing, although he thought they were considerably better than Sadie. He resisted temptation for two reasons:

Annabeth shaking her head again.

Wanting to hear more.

Annabeth smiled smugly at him when she heard that Carter had recognized her knowledge, and because of it, found her more interesting than him.

...

"We're going off topic," Amos was saying. No kidding, Sadie thought, instead of talking about ehat to do with the greeks, they were talking about which one they liked best. "I see no other option, we should kill them."

"WHAT" Sadie and Carter exclaimed. "After everything they've done for us. Amos have you lost your mind?"

"Perhaps, but they've seen too much, we can't let them go."

"I am NOT going to let you kill then Amos," Sadie had become close to both greeks and the thought of her uncle killing either of them was horrific.

"I won't kill them, you will," with that, Amos stormed out of the room.

...

"Kill us," Percy exclaimed, when he heard Amos's plan "has he lost his mind?" Annabeth was surprisingly calm, she could see the strategic logic behind their plan, so understood where it had come from. She also knew that she and Percy could take these guys, she would fight to her last breath to defend him and she knew he would do the same for her.

She missed the next part of the conversation, thinking about the best way to keep Percy alive, but started listening again just in time to hear one of the chairs scraping across the floor. She didn't think, she just acted, shoving Percy between a potted plant and the wall, she had her yankees cap with her and went invisible.

The door opened, revealing the magician who had marked himself as their enemy.


	12. Chapter 12

Percy held his breath. Don't look down, don't look down, he thought, praying that the magician wouldn't see him. As the fates would have it Amos didn't look down and instead marched straight to the front door, leaving.

"At least thats one of our problems out of the way" came Annabeth's voice from right next to him, making him jump.

"For Poseidon's sake Annabeth, don't do that."

"The others won't be far behind" she said, gesturing towards the stairs. Percy understood, wjich was a first for him, they needed to talk in private, and the hallway wasn't the place to do it.

Once they were in the guest room Carter and Sadie had given them, Annabeth started the conversation on a positive. "This place has become a prison. We can't stay here any longer."

"It wouldn't do is any good to leave."

"What makes you say that?"

"Remember when Bast threw us out, and Carter found us straight away. How did he know where we were?"

"You think they would be able to track us?"

"Yes."

"And what about camp, would they be able to find us there?"

"Annabeth, camps a long way from here, and I'm not getting in the damned chariot again"

"I wasn't thinking about the chariot of damnation." She pulled the ash tray off the cabinet in their room and filled it with water, she placed the now full ash tray next to the window, letting the sunlight touch the water. She had made a rainbow.

"You want to iris message someone." Captain obvious much, but Percy hadn't even thought of that.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Nico Di Angelo." She tossed in the required drachma and waited.

"Lock the door" she told Percy. "If the egyptions see this, they will definately think we're working against them." Percy obliged and locked the door, he also shoved a chair under the handle just to be safe.

When Nico answered their Iris message, he looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.

"Nico, you okay?" Percy asked, worried about his little cousin.

"What? Oh yeah, its just getting to the end of summer and dad is really excited about getting Persephone back. He's been singing! Do you have any idea how bad a singer the lord of the dead is?"

"I can empathise." Percy said, horrified at the idea of Hades singing.

"Percy" Annabeth said. "We're not here to talk about Hades singing. Magicians trying to kill us, remember?"

"Magicians?" Nico asked.

"Long story, which we can't explain because we're sworn to secrecy. Point is, can you get us out?"

"Where are you?"

"Brooklyn."

"Hold on, I'll be about ten seconds."

Percy staered counting.

One.

Annabeth kissed him.

Two.

He kissed her back.

Three.

Someone knocked on the door.

Four.

Annabeth opened it.

Five.

Sadie Kane came in.

Six.

She told them what Amos had said earlier.

Seven.

Annabeth told her that she and Percy already knew and were leaving.

Eight.

Sadie offered to help.

Nine.

Carter came in.

Ten.

"Hi."

All four af them jumped when Nico materialised from the darkest corner of the room.


	13. Chapter 13

Sadie stared. He was younger than she remembered, and his shaggy hair was longer, but he had the same dark eyes, the same aura of death about him and the same fashion sense.

"You have to get out of here now" she told him "if Walt sees you then things are going to become very confusing. And how are you even here, I thought you could only appear in places of death? And why are you staring at me like that?"

...

Nico had been talking to Percy and Annabeth only a few seconds ago and now, there were two new people here with them and one of them was talking to him like she'd known him her entire life. The onther was staring at him like 'who in Zeus's name are you and what in Hades are you doing here.' It reminded him why he hated getting attention, he never knew what to say in these situations. Fortunately for him, he had an older cousin who did.

Nico folded the shadows around himself and made himself almost invisible while Percy introduced him. "Sades, Carter, this is my cousin, Nico, son of Hades, ghost king and our exit strategy. Nico? Nico... NICO." When Nico finally decided to let the shadows which had been hiding him fall, Percy told him who the two strangers were. "This is Sadie and Carter Kane, they're about the only friends we have here."

"Are they coming with us?" he asked, he wasn't sure if he would be able to take Just Percy and Annabeth, let alone Percy, Annabeth, Sadie and Carter.

"No" Annabeth answered, "its just you me and Percy going."

"Great, then lets get going" Nico extended his hands out to Percy and Annabeth, and they took hold of him. "Don't let go" he warned, and he felt them both tighten their grip. He reached out to the shadows around him, willing them to cooperate, he opened the door to camp halfblood and jumped through, pulling Percy and Annabeth behind him.

...

Camp halfblood was bustling with demigod life, the Ares cabin were training in the sword fighting arena, Chiron was giving the Apollo cabin a few pointers on archery, the Aphrodite cabin were sunbathing by the lake, Conor and Travis were outside Nico's cabin with two pink tinted paintbrushes and empty paint pots.

"You might want to take a look at that" Percy said to Nico, gesturing to the twins.

"STOLLS" Nico yelled as he stormed off in a way only the son of Hades could, to see what damage they had done.

"Sooo," Percy elongated the word, not sure of what to say next, before he decided upon the very original "what now?"

"What now" Annabeth agreed.

...

After a few days, the interior of Nicos cabin had been repainted in its original colours (although Annabeth preferred it pink) and she and Percy had fallen into the routine of camp life. She was beginning to think that she was wrong about the egyptians needing her and Percy, but she was about to learn diferently.

Her phone vibrated. She checked the number only to find it blocked. It could be a trap, some sort of monster could be trying to find her, or it could be Sadie, she'd given the egyptian her number so that she and Carter could get to her if necesary. She answered it-if it turned out to be the former she was inside the camps protective borders anyway.

"ANNABETH THANK THE GODS" Sadie was so loud that Annabeth reckoned she could hear her without the phone. "You need to get to brooklyn house NOW, and bring your teleporting friend and Percy."

"How much am I allowed to tell Nico?" she asked, not sure if the egyptians still wanted to keep him on the dark. She heard a short canversation between Sadie and Carter befote Sadie answered her.

"Everything."

"Okay, and Amos?"

"Amos has agreed that we need your help."

"Does he know about Nico?"

"No." Annabeth felt the line go dead and she set off running to find Percy and Nico.

...

"PERCY!" Percy looked up from his game of get the greek with Mrs. O'Leary to find Annabeth running towards him, with her phone out. She hardly ever used he phone unless it was an absolute necessity.

"Sadie called" she told him as if that would explain everything.

"So?" he asked, he still didn't fancy the idea of Amos murdering him, much less his girlfriend.

"So Amos has come to his senses and they need us and Nico"

Percy still wasn't sure, but he was willing to give Amos a second chance. The two of them went to find Nico.

...

Nico sat outside the Hades cabin, the only real home he had been in scince Bianca had left him, and he was NOT going to let it get sabotaged by Connor and Travis with pink paint again.

"Nico, we need your help." Nico jumped, and not much could make the son of Hades jump, but Annabeth chase was definately one of the exceptions. Her voice came from right next to him, so close that he had to wonder if she was in fact his half-sister and had developed the ability to shadow travel. "Nico?" He had clearly been thinking about having another sister longer than he thought he had.

"Huh, oh right, help, yeah, okay. How?"

"We need back in to brooklyn house."

"You just got out of that place, now you want back in?"

"Sadie called." Annabeth exclaimed everything, all the way from her dream to the moment Nico had arrived, and finally, he conversation with Sadie on the phone.

"So this guy, Amos, doesn't like demigods, has decided to accept you and Percy but doesn't even know about me? And you want me to go back there?"

"Look Nico," Percy interjected "you don't have to come if you don't want to."

"Are you kidding. I'm all for this."

He reached out for Percy and Annabeth, ready to shadow travel them back to brooklyn. The shadows folded around them and their surroundings fell apart, replaced by brooklyn house.

...

"Finally" came Connors voice from a nearby tree. Travis couldn't help but agree with his brother, they had been waiting forever for Nico to leave his cabin so they could redecorate again. "So, what colour should we do this time?" he asked.

"well, I hear Nico's new favourite colour is yellow" Connor pointed out. Travis pulled out a pot of sunshine yellow paint and two paintbrushes. Connor smiled, and they set to work.


End file.
